I'm seeing increasing numbers of my smoker friends move to electronic cigarettes, and while the health implications may still be unclear, we know precisely how bad smoking tobacco is for us. I think the odds are on the side of anything that moves people away from regular cigarettes.

In the early days, e-cigs merely attempted to simulate smoking. That’s no longer the case. The e-cig of the future may look nothing like a paper cigarette, and will likely be very different from the e-cigs of today. The big players in the industry are working on an experience that is better than smoking. Future e-cigs will be Bluetooth-enabled so that only the owner can use them, while tracking personal statistics on usage and nicotine levels (one early effort is Smokio, the "connected electronic cigarette"). RJ Reynolds is exploring the possibility of adding tiny gyroscopes in order to enable gesture recognition. Vapor Corp introduced a prototype vaporizer that doesn’t work until it’s unlocked with a fingerprint scan, so the kids can’t vape while mom and dad are away.